Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Things I Should Know More About

If I had it to do over again and didn’t want to feel so much like “county mouse goes to Paris”, here are some things I would have brushed up on before the trip: **Cheese - which ones are you supposed to eat the rinds on, and which ones are you not? **French History - hard to appreciate the finer points of many of the landmarks if you don’t know the war victory they are intended to commemorate. **Architectural Terms - again, it is hard to fully appreciate the descriptions of some of Paris’ most famous buildings if you don’t know your cupola from your flying buttress. **Conversational French - most everyone here speaks at least a little English, but I came armed with nothing but my good looks in the French language department. High school Latin and college Spanish at least gave me the chance to pronounce Italian words correctly and guess at some of their meanings. French is a different story. Thank goodness for E! Barb walked-up to purchase something and instead of saying to the shop attendant "Bonjour Monsieur" to start the conversation, she said "Merci Monsieur" both Barb and the shop attendant really did not know where to go from there... **
Greek and Roman Mythology - every chateau ceiling, fountain, and priceless masterpiece seems to harken back to mythology and I’m rarely in on the joke. -BHyre

1 comment:

  1. I'd be hopelessly clueless in France, Barb! Good luck when Eric heads back to the states. ;)

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